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The masked face in front of me exploded in silver bubbles. A hand next to it signalled “OK?”. I did a little nod. Straightaway the cage door swung open to reveal a shark, its mouth ajar and full of teeth, hanging in the blue water 10 – no six – no three – feet in front of me.

A trip to the Pacific Northwest, I’d been told, would reveal humming cities cheek-by-jowl with mother nature. I’d spent time among bearded hipsters tasting craft beer in one of Portland’s 70-odd microbreweries. Now, in Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, I was eyeball to eyeball with a tankful of predators.

Except they weren’t that predatory. In fact, this selection – of black-tipped reef sharks, Japanese wobbegongs, even toothy sand tiger sharks – were a placid bunch, content to cruise the 225,000-gallon tank as pro-conservation ambassadors, a point Heidi, our guide, was keen to emphasise.

More than 9,000 people have dived with these sharks (no previous experience necessary) since the exhibit opened in 2013. The message they take home is that while we humans have driven many shark species towards extinction, killing some 70 million a year for fin soup alone, you or I are more likely to be taken out by our toasters.

Portland, OregonCredit:
DAVID GN

Environmentalism sits close to the region’s heart. These north-west states of Oregon and Washington are part of America’s liberal “left coast”, as last year’s presidential election showed. In Oregon, where the Democratic candidate has won every election since 1988, Hillary Clinton carried the state with 50 per cent of the vote (compared with Donald Trump’s 39 per cent). In Washington, Clinton won by a margin of 54 per cent to Trump’s 38.

With their green agenda, they have cleaned up their rivers (I watched kids jumping from the jetties in downtown Portland); they’re big on food miles (pretty much every waiter I spoke to told me proudly how “local” the food was); they have even legalised pot (originally for medicinal reasons, but now “dispensaries” serve it up for recreational use too).

Portland is perfect for exploring on two wheelsCredit:
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A good way to get to grips with Portland is to explore it by bike. I spent a morning with Pedal Bike Tours. We set off past the hundred-year-old Steel Bridge, took in the massive riverside grain silos and cut through Tanner Springs Park.

I learnt that the clothing companies Nike, Adidas, Columbia and Patagonia all call Portland home, as does computer giant Intel. “More people are moving here than anywhere else in the US,” explained Evan, my guide, ruefully adding that the city “also has the country’s biggest housing shortage”.

A brief, lung-busting climb took me to an elevated spot where the city was spread out beneath me, its five points (true: “think of it as a star”) bisected by the Willamette River, the clutch of skyscrapers, the sprawl. It was a hot, hazy day for the temperate Northwest but I could still make out the snow-capped peak of Mount Hood (11,250ft) poking above the layer cake of forest and cloud to the east.

Mount Hood casts a shadow over the cityCredit:
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Later that day, having taken in America’s oldest rose garden (the smell!), not to mention the world’s largest independent and second-hand bookstore, Powell’s City of Books (the first editions!), I found myself watching a man drizzle “Bee Local” honey, from hives on farmland near Mount Hood, over salt-sprinkled cheese. The cheese was local, so was the salt – some flakes infused with onions, others cherry-wood smoked.

I also drank my first mead. This particular bottle was brewed by a local outfit called Stung, logo: “Drink, Mate & Die”. It was nice. As was the honey-salt-cheese combo, partly because it was served with a dollop of home-grown enthusiasm.

The same joyous localism was apparent in The Commons Brewery down the road, where host Josh Grgas justified a cheese-and-craft-beer tasting with the chop-logical: “Have you ever seen a cow eating grapes?”

I had not. A “flight” of gulp-sized beers plus a taster board of cheeses is available to all for $20 here, and is to be recommended.

After a night spent mostly digesting cheese in the very chic Ace Hotel, where the décor is military-industrial/prison-hip, I borrowed the bike again and headed out beyond the city limit to see why Portland was here at all: because of the historic Oregon Trail.

A room at the Ace Hotel

This is the route the pioneers took when making the 2,000-odd-mile trek north-west. The section near Portland, accessible by tram and bus (both of which accommodate bikes) runs through the Columbia River Gorge. Deep and wide and tree-clad, the gorge splits Oregon and Washington.

It’s full of waterfalls. I biked from Multnomah to Cascade Locks and back to Troutdale, pausing only to hike one trail – to the 200ft plume of Elowah Falls – all too conscious of what I was missing along the way: you could trek here for weeks and not see it all.

A section of the Oregon TrailCredit:
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And yet the Columbia River Gorge is just one of many areas of outstanding natural beauty in the region. The biggest – heightwise at least – is Mount Rainier National Park, some three hours north-east of Portland.

I spent a day on the flanks of the 14,410ft snow-capped volcano. This far north, this high up, July is spring, August summer, September autumn, and the rest shades of winter. On my hike, I could pretty much hear the rush and hiss of plants bursting into life along the Trail of the Shadows, through the Grove of the Patriarchs and around the Reflection Lakes.

Mount RainierCredit:
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Armed with a knowledgeable guide in Kieron Weidner of First Nature Tours, I learnt that to reach the volcano’s summit you need serious ice-climbing gear, that the huge-leaved plants beneath the western hemlocks and Douglas firs are skunk cabbages, and that bear grass, whose lily-like flowers look like cotton-wool buds, only grows here in the Cascade Range.

I also witnessed how fast “The Mountain” generated its own weather: in just 30 minutes, dense fog cleared to icy blue sky – with the peak just there – before it disappeared behind cloud again.

From Mount Rainier I headed north-east, stopping in the small town of Enumclaw (“loud thundering noise” in the indigenous language). Here, in the unpretentious plywood-and-nature-posters surrounds of Kelly’s Mercantile, I enjoyed a home-grown slice of Washington State.

Kelly herself introduced me to singer-songwriter Pete Bush, who serenaded the diners through a PA system that was turned up slightly too loud. I’d eaten at some humdinger restaurants – SuperBite in Portland served sharing platters of whole fried trout, Dungeness crab, and ginger-black-bean sauce: just go there – but my steak tasted good in Enumclaw.

Tacoma lies south of Seattle, sitting in its shadow, but isn’t to be missed. If you visit, make sure you go kayaking on burnished Commencement Bay. The views of the city, the hills and (on a good day) Mount Rainier are spectacular, and orcas lurk below – but don’t let them distract you from the current, which, if you paddle the wrong way, can sweep you down the bay.

Seattle's skyline, dominated by the Space NeedleCredit:
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Having survived that danger – just – my next stop was an hour away, up Seattle’s Space Needle. Straight out of Buck Rogers – both futuristic (520ft in 41 seconds!) and of its time – this iconic tower from the Sixties is a great vantage point from which to get your bearings. That’s Microsoft territory down there; Amazon’s 40,000 employees have their own bus service running from one centre to another – and so on.

But if you really want to get above downtown Seattle – not to mention Lake Union, Lake Washington, Union Bay, Puget Sound and Elliott Bay – take the $99 scenic seaplane flight run by Kenmore Air. I love planes, and I love boats – so for me, a plane with boat feet is excellent.

The safety briefing (“put your seat belt on”) lasted four seconds, then we were up and away to take a look around. Bill Boeing (“Perhaps you’ve heard of him?”) made his first flight here in 1914. The aerospace company still has a big presence – including its own airport – in the city, but we didn’t need tarmac to land.

My only gripe about the seaplane was that the music accompanying the commentary should have included some by local heroes Nirvana. Later, at the stunning, sheet-metal EMP (Experience Music Project: catchy) Museum, designed by Frank Gehry of Guggenheim fame, I reminded myself all about Kurt Cobain – and Jimi Hendrix – both of whom hailed from here-ish. I also overheard a mum from Notting Hill try to square the “Well, Barnaby, he was very excited when he smashed his guitar, and no, that doesn’t mean you can break things when excited” circle with her nine-year-old son.

Afterwards, I took a tour of Pike Place Market – the oldest continuously running food market in the US – with Melissa Dempsey of Show Me Seattle. With its 200-plus local vendors, the market is a refreshing counterpoint to the global dominance of nearby Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks, whose first shop is also down the road.